St. Matthewâ€™s has new rector

Rev. Kevin M. Lloyd St. Matthew’s Parish will soon welcome the Rev. Kevin M. Lloyd as its next rector.

The vestry election of Father Lloyd completes a lengthy process of parish self-evaluation and a national search process following the retirement of the Rev. Frederick Spulnik in January 2004.

Father Lloyd, 34, is currently serving as assistant rector in the Church of the Ascension located in Hickory, North Carolina. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in religion from Wake Forest University and enrolled in the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1998. At seminary, Father Lloyd was the recipient of the Harris Award for academic excellence, leadership and gifts for ordained ministry. Upon graduating in 2001, he was awarded a position as a research assistant to the the Most Rev. Rt. Hon. George L. Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in England. Father Lloyd and his wife, Julia, have a two year old son, Harry.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Father Lloyd and his family to St. Matthew’s and to Jamestown. We are also grateful to have had such a productive and successful interim period under Father Bergmann,” said Ralph L. Misto Jr., St. Matthew’s Senior Warden and a member of its Search Committee.

Father Lloyd is expected to join St. Matthew’s on Feb. 1, and he will reside with his family at the church’s rectory on Mt. Hope Avenue.

The Reverend Stephen Bergmann, who has served as St. Matthew’s interim rector for almost 18 months, will be retiring after 37 years of parish ministry and moving to St. Louis.